“In their tumultuous history, the Moldavians have had four big story tellers: Ion Neculce, Ion Creanga, Mihail Sadoveanu and Ion Druta.” The appreciation was uttered the Romanian literary researcher Theodor Codreanu at the scientific symposium “Ion Druta – Humanism and Contemporaneity”, hosted on October 16 by the Moldovan Science Academy, and was received by the master with certain embarrassment, in the approving applause of the attendees, Info-Prim Neo reports. A year after turning 80 (3 September), the academician-prose writer was paid homage in a ceremony of the Chisinau scientific community. The event was accompanied by a series of analyses produced by renowned researchers from Moldova, Romania and Latvia. The Government declared the year 2008 to be the Ion Druta Year. Other events joined under the same slogan were: launching the book “Ion Druta – the Artistic Phenomenon” (coordinator – academician Mihail Dolgan) and the a life bibliography “Academician Ion Druta ” (some 6,000 references), launching the web site (www.druta.asm.md), laying the foundations of a National Museum “Casa Mare” in Soroca, the creation soiree “The Melodies’ Wedding”, scheduled for October 17 at the National Palace, the Vasile Alecsandri National Theater from Balti staging the play “The Steeple”, as the most recent work by Ion Druta “Maria Cantemir – the last love of Peter the Great” was published in Bucharest, etc. Following the writer’s initiative, a book series called “Renowned People from Moldova” will start to be published, while the research “Ion Druta – the Artistic Phenomenon” will be distributed to all the Moldovan libraries. The Moldovan writer Ion Druta, living in Moscow since the 60s, the president of honor of the Moldovan Writers Union, holds the title Writer of the People, two state awards (1967, 2008), is a member of honor of the Romanian Academy (1990) and a member of the Moldovan Academy (1992), holds the Creativity Prize awarded by the International Copyright Association (2008). He writes in different genres, but it’s the drama which brought him international fame. His plays are staged by over 500 theatres in the world.